Byron resident has been tallying township votes for 30 years

Zinta AistarsMarge Young has seen a lot of changes to the voting process in three decades as a poll worker, but some things never change.

Chads! She's seen them flying in every direction as ballots are fed into machines that tabulate them.

"They make you giggle," Marge Young said, and she does.

Hanging chads, not so much. "Those are the ones where people haven't punched the card right."

When it comes down to a vote-cast count, Young is very serious about Election Day.

Young has been watching over the votes of Byron Township residents for more than 30 years. Checking, double-checking, even triple-checking, she has worked the polling stations in Byron Township long enough to see changes in how we vote, but little change in the patterns of voter behavior.

"People line up first thing in the morning," she said. "They do get a little feisty when something goes wrong or slows down."

Punch cards have changed to ballots that are now processed through machines that tabulate votes. Many of the voter faces, however, have not changed, said Young, except perhaps to show the passing years.

She can tell right away if a voter has come to the wrong precinct. Directing lost voters to the right place is just one of her many duties.

"You get to know all the people. You know when someone walks in” if they don’t belong there, she said.

When Young first started working for the township, the offices were located where the Byron Center Museum & Historical Society is located now, at 2506 Prescott St. SW. She first worked for Paul Troost, Byron Township trustee and clerk, who retired in 1991. The township’s six precincts have expanded to eight.

"Paul Troost needed someone to type up the voter registration forms, and we needed three or four copies for each voter," Young recalled. "I helped him prepare the punch cards, get the supplies all set up."

Young worked general elections and school elections, eventually becoming the chairman for her precinct, Precinct 4. She’s lived in her current home in Byron Township for 54 years.

She remembers the cement blocks stored in the basement of the old township offices on Prescott Street. "They were used to hold up the election signs and keep them from blowing over in the wind."

Byron Township Supervisor Audrey Nevins Weiss praised Young’s work.

"Election Day is the longest day of the year for the clerk and election workers,” she said. “The day starts at 6 a.m. and does not end until the last voter goes through the polls and the votes are tallied. At the end of a long day the workers have to check and recheck the numbers to be reported to the clerk. The absentee ballots have a separate counting board which requires the sharpest of minds. Marge Young serves on this board. As a former clerk myself, I know what is ahead of them and what the office is preparing for six weeks before Election Day."

When it comes to voting herself, Young is firm: "It's a must," she said.